Future of Ruin
by Harkon
Summary: Harry Potter has been reincarnated more times than he can count, always to stop a mad man. Now, the world has been ravaged by nuclear war, and nothing will ever be as it once was.
1. The Beginning

Hello Folks, this is the first story I've written here in a very long time, and the first ever under this name. So enjoy the ride and let me know what you think. Grammar Nazis are welcome but will not be taken seriously, and flamers will be used to stoke my fireplace.

Disclaimer: Legally this does nothing but no, I'm not an exceedingly rich British woman, and I never will be, I lack the proper equipment.

Prologue: There and back again... and again.

The twisted skyline that once marked the great city of London lay in ruin. This burned out husk had stood this way for centuries. I can remember it burning. Of all the ways I pictured the world ending I never once would have blamed it on the muggles. Throughout the eons I have protected this world time and again. Always born as the seven month dies, and always only when the world is threatened by a great madman that could see its destruction. But I have no power to fight bombs; radiation, and the total destruction of civilization was not something I could prevent. In some ways; all this ruin is my fault.

This is one of the bad times. I don't know why I have been called back, especially after being left to sleep for so long. My only guess is that _he _must have woken up with me. Growing up in this hellish landscape wasn't easy, but at least this time I had my memories. You see, every so often, when fate decides to throw me a bone, I get to remember, _everything._ I remember a grand castle in the Scottish wilderness, friends, classes, and _magic_ all around. I can remember a thousand years before that, founding the very same school, even though my name was different. I can even remember growing up in a mud hut before the written language was invented. Through everything, I have always had my magic. A powerful force that sweeps around me, bending to my will, allowing me to create and change matter with a thought. In this age it seems stronger than it has before, more primal as well.

Every time I awaken I know _he_ has as well. Sometimes I believe I've only been brought back to stop him, or die trying. I've done both more times then I'd like to remember. But, I've spent 23 years wandering this wasteland and I have never layed eyes on him. I can feel him though, like a deep ache in my bones.

A thunderous crash sounds out deep within the ruined city, a booming roar that shatters the few remaining windows scattered about. I look up from my perch atop a dilapidated building and my eyes narrow at the sight. Since muggles ended the world some seven centuries ago, magical society collapsed. We were so few in number even our magic couldn't protect us from the destruction the muggles wrought with their nuclear bombs. This included the statue of secrecy, and the protection we gave to the magical creatures of this world. What I am seeing would have been a dragon in the past, but now it was a true monster. Its wings were stunted and twisted, this monster had never flown. Extra eyes, some of them seeing, others milky whit and blind, dotted its reptilian face and neck. It was impossible to tell what variation of dragon this particular beast descended from, but it was blind with rage, and probably pain. Large sores dotted its bus sized body, and scales were either falling off in places, or had fused together like some plate of armor.

It was crashing about, smashing into buildings and spitting out small spurts of a sickly orange fire. It was hurting itself more than anything else, and I was content to let it have its tantrum when a scream reached my ears. I leapt off of my high spot, using magic to guide me safely to the ground and cushion my fall before taking off at a dead run. Magic was different this time. This time I am without a wand, but in some ways, it suits me better, feels more natural. I leap up into the air and use my magic to push myself forward, fading into a gray cloud as I use a quick combat style of apparition to appear mere feet from the beast. Its kicking up dust and rubble in its pursuit of a young woman, no older then I look. I raise my hand and a thick, three foot long spike of ice shoots from my palm and lodges itself under the creatures arm, burying itself in its flesh.

The woman shrieked again, either in terror or at what I had done directly, and turned and bolted as the mutie dragon turned to face me. I raised up both of my hands and a blue shield swirled around me in enough time to catch the perverted dragon's fire that the monster managed to spit at me. I kill the shield and roll behind an old boulder that once was part of a wall to a book store before poking my head back out and lash out with spinning blades of dark crackling magic.

The blasts tear into the beast, one of them cleaving its fore leg from its body, another burying itself in its maw before losing momentum. It roared in pain and anger as a great rush of dark, putrid blood pooled beneath it. The beast lurches forward and swiped at me with its one remaining front leg. I jump backwards and flip up and over my boulder, easily avoiding the attack as the monster collapses.

It whines pitifully and struggles for a moment before lying still, panting as it dies. I walkeover to the beast, confident that the will to fight had left it, and rest my hand on its head. I saw brief flashes of its life as it dies. Younger, and healthier. Parents that cared for it and loved it. It seems like some of these mutations were finally stabilizing. At least for the dragons.

I send one last blast of pure magic into the crazed animal's brain to put it out of its misery. I could _feel_ that this beast was still flowing with magic so I made a choice. With a few swipes of my hand I pried apart its chest, mostly warped and flaking scales, and give a little 'come here' motion with my finger. Its heart jumps out of its chest with a wet pop and hovers in front of me. After giving it a once over, and deciding that it was more or less a normal dragon heart, a drop it down into the bag I always carry, you never know, maybe I could make a serviceable wand with it one day. The woman I had saved was no where in sight. It wasn't hard to understand why either. With technology barely above the bronze age in sophistication, she probably believed she was losing her mind. Even to this day, I have seen muggles deny the existence of magic, even when its thrust in their faces. The population had dwindled greatly, with only a few million people across the whole world, and only a few hundred wizards amongst them. The few I have managed to speak to at least knew of their history. Some pockets of magicals had survived better than others, but no one was doing very well. I move on from the dead dragon and head for the outskirts of London.

I had been searching the last six or seven years for some way to reverse the damage that had been done but to no avail. It seemed to me that the planet was slowly sorting itself out, but things would never be how they had been. With mutation as bad as it was, it was a wonder any pure animals existed at all anymore. The sun had begun to set as I reached the borders that had once been London. I decided to camp for the night in a clearing just outside London. I would see what the morning brought me.

* * *

I awake in a cold sweat. Nightmares haunt me constantly, no matter how long I've lived, regardless of my current incarnation, I always have the nightmares. Usually they star _him_ my ever present antagonist, but last night, it was different. I haven't dreamed of Hermione Granger in a very long time. She was a brilliant witch, the smartest of her age, and she was taken from our world unjustly.

When she was in her early twenties she was offered an apprenticeship to work in the Department of Mysteries, an old area within Britain's wizarding government. She hadn't been there long before an accident occurred. A spell she had been researching backfired right in her face and she was erased out of existence. We never found out what happened to her exactly, but the best minds at the time concluded that she probably slipped into the space between realities, and would probably drift their forever.

I had nightmares about her for years, crying out, floating in an endless void of pure darkness as things that didn't truly exist reached out to touch her, torture her. Last night was the first time in this life that I've had such a dream, and probably the first one I've had in my last four incarnations. Something about Hermione always stuck with me. She was just so uniquely her own person that she'd be impossible to forget.

I sigh and try to let the nightmare go before standing and trying to stretch the kinks out of my body. With a quick summoning charm and a flick of my wrist I have a nice fire started and dig through my pockets (much bigger on the inside than the out) and pull out an old nap sack that has some food in it. Mutie chicken doesn't taste that bad as long as you make sure not to pop the venom sacs while you're fixing it.

After I've eaten I stand and leave my little clearing in this dead stretch of forest and head back out on the road. Much of my time is spent like this, just traveling about, helping where I can and always keeping an eye out for _Him._ I've had a few leads and hunches over the years as to what he might be up to but nothing concrete, and I've never been able to sense him either. I run a hand through my unruly black hair and frown at the feeling of the scar that crosses my forehead. I always have this scar. If I am born with it I will remember who I am by the time I reach my fifth birthday. If not then I more then likely never find out who I truly am and live a life or ignorance, at least until I die. The scar holds us together somehow. He has one similar to it along the inside of his left arm, but for the life of me I can't remember how we came about them. We are both so very old its quite possible we've merely forgotten their significance.

I crest a hill in this forlorn world and spot a small settlement in the distance. It goes by the name of Good Springs these days, but I always remember it as Chelmsford. I don't believe anyone has called it that in over seven hundred years now. Most of the original town is rubble now, but there is a small population living in a collection of buildings near the edge of the town. It once boasted a population of over a hundred thousand, now it has a population of a few hundred. There are armed guards at a make shift gate and they eye my suspiciously as I approach.

One of them, barely out of his teens calls out to me. "Halt, state your name and intention!" He sounds Serious.

"My name is Harry Potter, I come seeking shelter and trade. Not doing anything more then passing through mate, won't have any trouble out of me." I guess dreaming about Hermione last night set that about; Harry Potter is only one of many names I could have given, but it was always one of my favorites for some reason.

The older of the two guards approached me. "Lift up your coat." I did so and I spread it open for good measure. The only weapon I had that he would be able to see is an old sidearm I carry with me, He eyes me for a second but seems to relax some. Everyone owns a gun now after all. They let me through after their inspection and tell me to behave myself if I don't want to end up with a bullet in me.

The little town is kept pretty clean and orderly, a tiny slice of civilization surrounded by wild country and monsters. There aren't shops exactly, any of the buildings still standing are used more like community housing, but there are little booths set up selling goods. Mostly things like food and clothes, people in this day and age are concerned about what it takes to stay alive, not about having fun.

A few kids are running around though, playing with guns carved out of wood. Its been a while since I've seen any children, growing up in this world is no easy task. I walk up to one of the booths and fish a few stray bullets out of my pocket to trade with. I'm able to get a bag of fried squirrel and a couple of mutie apples. The apples are about a third bigger than the normal ones and are orange with yellow stripes. I take a bite out of one while stashing the rest of my lunch. Its extremely sweet and has a hint of a caramel taste.

I stand their eating my apple and watching the kids play for a moment before moving on, heading down the road to the only building not used for normal housing. Its a clinic of sorts, but the doctors have no real medical training, just trial and error. I always visit places like this first. I walk around, laying a hand on a man's shoulder that has a broken leg. In A few days it will be healed. A pat the hand of an older woman and her 'doctors' will discover that the infection that was going to kill her in a week was starting to clear up rapidly.

There isn't much I can do for this world. The people are so scattered and divided on everything, it will take centuries before they might start trusting each other enough to band together. But I can help the sick and hurt where I find them. With just a subtle bit of magic I can help ease their pain and get them fixed much faster then they would naturally.

I head back outside in enough time to catch some sort of fight going on. A woman is being accosted by one of the guards that also acts as the police here. Apparently she tried to steal food from one of the vendors, and theft is a capitol crime here. I approach them and realize its the same woman I saved from yesterday.

"I'm sorry alright? I'm just hungry, didn't have anything to trade with." She looks pitiful, lanky and staggering. I smell a certain kind of rot on her that tells me she's suffering from radiation poisoning as well.

"Tha's 'sides the point. We don't put up with thieves here so you're either gonna pay for it or I'll throw you out of town on yer arse and you won't ever get back in!" He's holding her by the upper arm and is trying to grab at the loaf of bread she's clutching.

"No need for that now. I'll pay for it." I pull out some more bullets and a small bag of herbs I've collected used for healing. "Is this enough?" He eyes me suspiciously, inspecting my bullets and giving my bag of herbs a sniff before letting her go with a nod.

"Its right good of this bloke to do that for ya. If I catch you stealin' again yer gonna be out on yer arse."

He walks away to pay the vendor and I face the woman. By the way her eyes widen I can tell she recognizes me from yesterday. "B-but, you ain't dead mister?"

"Nah, takes more than a rascal like that. I gave him a spanking and sent him running home to his mummy. Its Harry by the way." I reach out and shake her hand, using my magic to pull the radiation from her body as I do so.

"Well its awfully kind of you mister. I couldn't help me self. I've just been so hungry these last few days. I thought I was getting sick, but I actually feel a bit better now."

"I understand, we're all hungry. Just try not to let it happen again." I give her another look over and I'm satisfied that I drew enough radiation out that she should be fine now.

She totters off to go find a place to eat and I continue on down the street. There's not much for me to do in little places like this. I just go about trying to help people before moving on. Much of this life has been spent this way, with the people so divided I imagine _he_ has had a hard time gathering followers this time around. The man has always bee a monster, and he always wants his minions.

I head into a little tented off area that serves as a bar. If there's one thing people haven't forgotten how to do its how to make alcohol. I lay a bullet down on the table and ask for a glass. I'm mostly here for information. The bear of a bartender approaches me and fill up a dusty glass with something that might be whiskey, but is much stronger. "Have any news I might find interesting?" bars are always a good place to here things, especially given the lack of newspapers in this world.

"Not much 'round here mate. Same old same old for the most part. I did here somethin' interesting about a place on up the road though." I sit up a little straighter and motion for him to continue. "Well, 'bout a week ago a fella come in here talking about this guy up in Cornick, that's about a hundred miles north of here if you didn't know. He says there's this man up there by the name of Tom that's been doing a lot of talkin'. Says he can help the town flourish and prosper. The guy said he did some fancy magic tricks and had the whole town eating out of his hand. Sounds like a tosser if you ask me."

I'm perfectly still. The name Tom echoes in my memory for a minute before settling. Tom Riddle. It could be nothing, just a coincidence, but I will have to make sure. If he's using magic on these people then they'll probably do anything he wants. "Any clue what he did?"

"Oh that fella told me he made a little crippled boy walk. Probably somebody he brought with him in on the scam."

"Yeah, yeah that's probably it." I down my drink, suddenly feeling like I need it, before heading back out the door. I stop at a few more booths on my way out of town to grab some more food and then I'm on my way. The bartender said Cornick is about a hundred miles north of here so that's the direction I'm heading. Throughout my many lives I've been almost everywhere a person could want to go. But I don't recognize the name Cornick so I'll have to walk instead of apparate. Trying to apparate somewhere without knowing exactly where you were going was always a very bad idea.

In no time I'm back out on the road and leaving Chelmsford behind me. I'm heading for Cornick.

END

Well what do you guys think? If people find this interesting I'll of course write more, if not I might write more anyway. It might seem a bit slow for now but it'll pick up once the main conflict gets rolling. I always wanted to right Harry in the apocalypse, hopefully the way I put him there is at least a little original.


	2. Never Pick Up A Hitchhicker

Chapter 1: Never Pick up a Hitchhicker

Arch 1: Harry Potter and the Temporal Crack

A/N: I seemed to get a fair bit a traffic for the last chapter, and a couple of nice reviews to go with it so here we go, the first official chapter 1. If everything goes according to plan in this story it will be comprised of several 'story archs.' Meaning that essentially their will be little stories that take place within the larger scope of the tale. Some of them may only be a few chapters long, some of them will be much longer. As another note, I'm not from England, so my geography is going to be off, but given the time in which this story takes place, not much is going to look the same as it does now. Anyway, on to the good stuff and the reason you're here.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, promise.

It never ceases to amaze me how different the world always is when I wake up. Especially this time. After being 'asleep' for nearly a thousand years I might as well be on an alien planet inhabited with humans. The landscape has changed dramatically, some cities still stand in places but they're crumbling ruins of a far more advanced culture than the ones currently dotting the globe. Where parks once stood for children to play, now there are small forests, and grasslands that grow taller than I am. In some ways its more peaceful because there are so few people in comparison to how it used to be. But in other ways its far more dangerous too, especially since everyone owns a gun now.

I'm humming an old tune called _Hey Jude_ to myself and walking down a gravel path that used to be a highway. Nature has reclaimed what man has taken from it. I'm guessing that all the radiation had an odd effect on the plant life since I don't recognize most of the trees anymore. They grow extremely fast now, I've actually sat and watched as a bush grew its way along a road in a matter of hours. And the leaves of some of these strange trees are massive, as long as my arm or longer in some cases. Towering evergreens now only grow about a meter tall, but there are millions upon millions of them. And the wildlife has evolved right along with it. I'm sure there was a period of adjustment, but life will find a way. Besides, its cool seeing monkeys in England, even if they have two tails and threes eyes a piece.

I'm about to stop for the night and set up a little tent I have stowed away in one of my pockets when I catch a whiff of smoke in the air. It could be a natural fire, but most of the leaves on these trees have a distinctly sweet smell to them when burnt; this is a campfire built with just the wood. I decide to keep walking and soon spot the orange glow of a fire up ahead and just off the road.

I approach quietly at first, some men have become monsters in this day and age and I'd rather leave them to their own mercies instead of having to kill them if I can. My fears are put to rest as I see a family of three sitting around the fire about to put something on to cook. I start making much more noise as I approach, not wanting to give them a shock.

The father hears me first and grabs for an old hunting rifle he's kept near by. "Who's there? I don't want to hurt anyone, so if you mean us harm I suggest you keep walking."

I raise my hands up in the sign of surrender as I step out into their little clearing. "No harm meant, just curious and traveling, that's all." He seems to relax at seeing how young I look and lowers his gun.

"That's a good way to get shot these days lad. We could have been bandits, or god forbid, cannibals for all you knew."

I give him my best smile. "I wasn't too worried, I scoped you guys out before approaching. If you looked the mean sort I'd have went on my merry way."

He nods and sets his gun down, his wife and son are starting to look relaxed again. "I really don't mean to bother you all. I'm more than happy to move on if it would make you lot more comfortable."

The man waves away my comment and approaches me with his hand out to shake. "My name is Alex, and this is my wife Tabby, and our son Marcus."

I shake his hand. "I'm Harry, Its a pleasure to meet all of you. I smelled your campfire and just thought I'd come and take a look." They have what looks like a small tent made out of animal hides set up behind the fire. It can be put up and taken down in a hurry, and is durable enough to keep any weather out. "Are you all traveling? There's a nice little town about ten miles on down the road. They usually let anybody in as long as you promise to behave yourself."

The relief I see in his eyes is evident. "We were part of a little community up until about a week ago. Strange things kept happening at home, and it seemed like it was getting more and more dangerous by the day so we left. I have Tabby and Marcus to think about, I don't want them hurt." He looked around nervously. "Of course, I can't say we're any better off out here really."

I nod in agreement. "This world is a tough one to grow up in that's for sure. The town up ahead is called Good Springs. I'm sure they'd be happy to take you in as long as you can make yourself useful and don't cause any trouble. There's quite a lot of kids around Marcus' age too."

The little boy looks up at his father with a hopeful smile. "Can we see it daddy? Can we go to the town Mister Harry is talking about?"

He shares a look with his wife and nods to his son. "We'll head that way first thing in the morning son." He turns back to me with a smile. "Would you like to stay for dinner Harry?"

"As long as its no trouble I don't see why not. Any chance you'd be up to telling me whats going on where you're from. Strange things have always interested me."

"I don't think that will be any problem at all." We set about getting dinner ready. Alex retrieves a skinned animal from around behind the tent. Its about the size of a large dog, but its built more like a bear, thick and knotted with muscle. I'm sure its some new species that's popped into existence over the last thousand years but I choose not to comment on it. I pull out a knife from around my belt and proceed to quickly cut it up into different pieces, seasoning it with some herbs I've collected before placing it on a spit over the fire. With a little bit of subtle magic on my part I coax my heat out of the flames and the animal is soon roasting.

"So why don't you tell me some about what's been happening at your old home while we wait for this fella to cook?" I take a seat in front of the fire with the family and wait on Alex.

He takes a drink of water from an old battered cup before speaking. "About a month ago a strange storm came over us. There were no clouds but lightning struck no less then nine times in the exact same spot. There's a black crater in the ground from it. Within a day or two the lightning had reappeared and just seemed to float in the air over the spot. It would shimmer like a mirage, coming in and out of focus at different times during the day. Then we started to hear strange noises coming from the lightning."

"what do you mean by strange noises?"

"Growling and scratching sounds, like a wild dog trying to get into your house at night, but much, much larger." Alex looked shook up at the thought of it and ran his hand through his long red hair. "Then, one morning we saw claw marks at the base of the crater, like something was trying to escape a cage, before being pulled back in."

I sit quietly for a few minutes, digesting what he had told me. I really wanted to follow up on this Tom fellow, to see if it was really _him, _but it sounded like something very serious was going on there. "Could you point me in the direction of where you used to live. Might sound a bit barmy, but I'm curious to see it for myself."

Alex looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "I wouldn't suggest it. About half of us left last week. Some were to stubborn to move on, but I don't know if you'll find anyone there now."

I give him my best winning smile. "That's fine, like I said, I just want a quick peek before heading on. I have pressing business up north anyway; I couldn't stay long."

He tells me where to go as I pull our meat off of the fire and pass hearty chunks around to everybody. "Its just West of here. Probably ten or twelve miles. The trail forks a few hundred yards farther down. Just take the left path and you'll be on your way."

After what he told me we all sit around and eat. After the serious conversation I decide to lighten the mood and tell them all some stories of me growing up in this wasteland of a world. I always seem to be an orphan too, no matter how many times I ride this rodeo.

After we eat I bid them fair well, reminding them again which direction Good Springs is in. I take another hour or two of walking; balls of white light hover in front of me to show me the way. Later on I set up camp off the road by about half of a mile and bunk down for the night, sending out a short prayer to who ever might be listening for no nightmares tonight.

THIS IS A SCENE BREAK

The next morning I jerk awake in a cold sweat, more nightmares starring Hermione. I really gotta stop using the name Harry Potter for a while, its giving me to much of a headache. I stand and get dressed before heading outside and collapsing my tent, storing it in one of my huge pockets. I'm not very hungry after the nightmares I've been having so I decide to hit the road again.

The trip is uneventful. 10 miles is not much traveling distance anymore, people have gotten used to going it on foot these days. Its a miracle to find a horse that is pure stock anymore. The muties are way to aggressive and can be unpredictable.

As noon draws near I can see smoke rising up in the distance, several different plumes of it. I decide to enter town in my animagus form first to get a feel for things. One second I'm a young handsome wizard powerful enough to take on the world. The next I'm a massive gray wolf with a patch of white across my face. I slink up the road in a run and make my way between two dwellings to lie down in the brush; and see what I can see. There are six people standing out between the little houses, two of them are arguing about something.

"We can't stay here! You've seen what's happening. Any day now somethin' awful with big teeth is gonna spring up out of the ground and eat us all!"

"I've lived here for thirty years and I ain't movin' now. Ain't no damn thing gonna come out the ground. Just the lightning makin' noise you pussy!"

Two men were the cause of all the noise. One of them looked relatively young, probably around thirty. The other one was old, what hair he had was white. He had to be pushing sixty at least, and that's damn impressive in this world.

The younger of the two gives the old fella a shove. "Fine! Piss on ya then! I tried to convince your old arse to leave with us but you can just stay and rot!" He stomped off into one of the houses, another person, I'm assuming his wife, went in with him. After the old man made it back to his feet, grumbling about today's youth, a few more people walked out and looked around. The little village had about ten people still living there. One would have been enough for me to stop and help.

I Slip back into the woods a ways before shifting back into my human form and reentering the village, this time by the main entrance. Everyone stops and stares at me as I approach them all. They're skittish, and I can tell no one has been sleeping well lately. One of the younger men pulls out a side arm. Nothing quite as Impressive or powerful as the revolver I carry at my side, but bullets tend to kill regardless of what size they are.

"Whoa now, I don't mean you guys any harm. I was just down the road and heard an argument and thought I'd come see what was happening."

"Well you can just keep walkin' and mind your own damn business." The young man, I realize now that he's probably no older than sixteen points his gun at me. And older woman walks up behind him and smacks him on the back of the head.

"Put the damn gun down junior, before you shoot your foot off." He looks abashed and quickly holsters the gun.

"Sorry mum, we're all a little jumpy." She sighs and rolls her eyes at her son.

"Excuse my boy sir, he gets a little big for his pants sometimes. Takes after his father, just doesn't have the muscle to back it up yet." She ruffles his hair and approaches me, ready to shake hands.

"My name is Jean, my boy there is Arthur."

I gladly shake her hand. "My name's Harry. If you don't mind me asking, what was the fighting over?" She glances back over her shoulder and I realize I can see blue light faintly dancing through a thin patch of trees.

"Maybe it would be easier to show you Harry, I doubt you'd believe me otherwise."

I smile at her, she reminds me of an old friend's mother, damned if I can remember his name though. "You might be surprised. I saw a lizard the size of a bus a few days ago. Not much is surprising anymore."

She laughs. "A bus? Well, we don't have any big lizards around here, just follow me and take a look." She guides me through the center of the little village and into the clearing through the little patch of trees. My heart leaps into my throat at the sight of it.

A patch of electricity about two meters across and three meters tall is floating in mid air over a patch of burnt and indented earth. Its swirling and spinning. The slight smell of ozone accompanies it and so does a slight buzzing sound.

"Has anyone touched it yet?" Jean looks at me like I'm crazy.

"No, no way in hell. We've all been staying away from it. Been able to ignore it for the most part, but now, with the noise-" as if the floating ball of electricity doesn't like being talked about, a deep angry growl issues forth from the electricity. I can see the claw marks that Alex mentioned the night before.

Cautiously I approach the floating mass of electricity. With a thought I use my magic to allow me to see the energy issuing from the mass. In ages past it was called mage sight, but I doubt there's another soul alive that knows that term, well, maybe _one _other.

As I feared it looks to be a tear in the space time continuum. A hole tore open from who knows what. Right now it was very unstable. It didn't open up to any time in particular, but I could tell that it was adjusted for the past, nothing from the future would step through. I looked closer at the massive swirls of energy coursing around and realized something. You see, most tears like this are tiny, microscopic in size actually, and they're fairly common. This one somehow ballooned to a million times the normal size, and it seemed to be stabilizing on its own. That could still be dangerous. The last thing I want would be for someone like Hitler to come waltzing through with a couple dozen tanks. Compared to today's level of technology, he'd be almost a god to these people.

While the tear stabilized, it would open up to several different periods in history, probably for just a few seconds each. Unfortunately, I don't think I could close it if I tried. Time is a fickle thing. The only other thing I could really tell is that this is the end point of the tear, I wouldn't be able to travel backwards, only something in the past could come forwards.

"This thing is a nasty piece of work. Keep everyone back please."

"Why, do you know what it is?" Jean looked very confused and slightly afraid.

"Just trust me for a few minutes, I'm going to approach it." I stretched out my magic until it was focused into an invisible glove over my left hand, hopefully it would protect me. I walked forward, and after a moment's hesitation, I stuck a finger into the tear. As I suspected, it wouldn't take me anywhere, what it did was much worse.

A thousand images flashed in my mind all at once, It felt like eternity and only a moment at the same time. I grit my teeth and pull my hand away, which is smoking slightly and looks several years older than the rest of me. I look at it fascinated as I take in the additional wrinkles and wear on my hand before it reverses itself and returns to normal. If I had been anyone else what I had just seen would have driven me insane. Lucky for me I've already lived through most of history, I guess lucky anyway.

"You guys need to stay back away from this thing. It could very well kill you if you stumbled and fell into it." I shake my hand to get the rest of the tingling to stop and turned to face Jean.

"Do you have an idea as to what it is? No offense Harry, but it seems awfully strange for you to come along like this right when we were all about to pack up and leave."

"I ain't going anywhere!" The old man spoke up again.

"Shut up Horace, no one cares!" Jean's reply sends a nervous laugh through the small group.

"To be honest with you I met Alex up the road a ways and he explained what was happening here. I decided to take a look for myself."

I turn back to the tear and study it again, wondering how it got here.

"Do you know what it is? We're kinda desperate. Most of us have lived in this little community most of our lives. We're small so no one bothers us, and they're hasn't been any danger around in years. Well, other than the wildlife."

"Yeah I know what it is Jean." I take a deep breath and sigh, here comes the hard part. But at least the statue of secrecy hasn't been around in centuries to muddle things up. "Its a tear in time. Essentially this is one end of a tunnel, the other end is constantly fluctuating through time, so just about anything could walk through it from any when."

Despite the fact that Jean is probably not very well educated, she seems very intelligent and grasps the concept.

"But how is that possible? And how do you know?"

"Your first question is harder to answer. Usually these things are so small you can't even see them, they're not big enough for even a bug to fly through. I honestly have no idea how this one got so big. Your second question is much easier to answer. I'm a wizard."

The people around me stop their murmuring and stare at me like I've grown an extra head, or maybe two for that matter. "That's horse shit! A wizard? Do you take us all for a group of idiots?" Its Jean's son again. His mouth seems to be to big for his face.

In response I flick my wrist at him and he shifts and changes rapidly into a pig. After squealing loudly and taking off in a run away from me I wave my hand and he shifts back, stumbling and falling since he is no longer built to run on four legs.

"We have always existed, since long before the great cataclysm that changed this world so very much. But we are far and few between, especially these days." I wait for their reaction. Sometimes I'm chased off when I tell people I'm a wizard, sometimes they try to worship me like a god. The latter is when I leave voluntarily.

Jean looks at her son to make sure nothing was hurt but his pride before turning back to me. She walks closer, almost close enough to touch me.

"Will you help us?"

Well there you have it folks. I know these chapters aren't super long, but I'm just now getting back into the swing of writing from a long hiatus, so I expect them to grow in size as I get the hang of things again. Any questions that don't interfere with the plot will be addressed at the beginning of the next chapter. As I side note the reason Harry told everyone he's a wizard is because to help them, he's going to have to use magic. Better to get the explanation out of the way first instead of worrying Thank you to all the people out there that read this, even if you didn't leave any reviews, I'm fine with that. But I would like to know what you all think, so if you feel up to it, leave me a comment with that button down there at the bottom of the page.

Til next time.

Preview of a future chapter:

I look at the beasts before me, eyes sharp and slanted. A clicking sound issues from their throats as they look me over, a deadly intelligence glinting in their eyes. The creatures, each standing at least eight feet tall, tense before they pounce.

"I fucking hate dinosaurs."


	3. Time begets Time

_The Following is a Note from the author:_ Hey everybody, This story is getting some nice feedback. And I had one complaint that I would like to address.

The Explanation thus follows:

_When Nightmares plague the Eldest One,_

_a choking sickness blots the sun,_

_Mother Earth lies wounded, cursed,_

_An evil comes, it is the first,_

_time and time again,_

_It casts brother against brother, and friend against friend._

_But a relic from the Eldest's past,_

_will come for him, swift and fast,_

_In his greatest time of need,_

_******** will come for him and he'll be freed._

_With the greatest power seen before,_

_he'll make the evil Nevermore._

Yes, that is a prophecy, and it is important. That's all I'm saying so far.

On with the story.

Chapter 2: Time Begets Time

The sun is rising up over the treetops in this little out of the way place. It seems quite peaceful at first. The people aren't too rowdy, its out of the way, and its small enough that raiders and bandits don't usually bother with it. I stretch the soreness out of my muscles and my neck pops with a satisfying crack. I fish out one of the home grown and rolled cigarettes Jean gave me the other day. It takes kinda like blue berries and gives me a light heady feeling. I don't smoke them very often, I know normal tobacco is addictive, its hard to tell what almost a thousand years of radiation has done to the plant too. Besides, smoking purple tobacco just seems strange.

I snuff out the odd cigarette and turn to face the true problem of this little community. The lightning around the portal was constant now, and it had solidified into an oval that crackled with dark energy. I have seen and learned much in my travels, and I believe that the town's first temporal visitor would be arriving any moment now.

I ready myself by bringing my magic to the forefront of my mind. Its crackles and pops across my skin and dances between my fingers as the portal seems to swell, and the lightning becomes more unstable. The small group of people behind me are the ones more curious than scared of what might be stepping through.

With a loud snap a large splash of water came pouring through the portal and several large, insect like creatures came out with it. The animals almost looked identical to a modern scorpion, but they were huge in comparison. They stood at around a meter and a half tall at their backs and looked to weigh around 600 lbs each.

When they found their feet they began snapping their large pincers and darting their tails at anything around them. With a snap of my fingers they were hoisted up in the air. With the smallest gesture the large scorpions were compressed into a tiny spot to about the size of a knut. It dropped to the ground with an almighty thud and neatly buried itself several feet into the ground.

"Well at least that was easy." I looked up into the faces of a stunned and gaping crowd. "What?" I say with a grin. "Never seen magic before?"

The crowd slowly came out of their stupor and moved over to me.

"Those things would have torn us apart, thank you so much for stopping them. It may have been a small thing for you, but we are very grateful." Jean grasped my hand for a moment before letting it drop. "Anything you need while you're here and you'll have it."

I smile at her and shake my head. "I need no thanks, I was put here to help people. That you appreciate it is plenty thanks for me."

I look back at the portal and notice that it is very discreetly expanding and contracting, pulsing almost. With each pulse I could see that it was growing ever so slightly in size, preparing for the next time the portal touched a spot in history.

"Right then, this is only the beginning folks. I give the portal another six hours before it sends us a visitor. The only real way to keep this contained is if I deal with each threat individually while the portal expends its energy and then fades from existence. What comes through could be completely harmless, or it could be like those monsters we just saw. I promise that I will do all I can to keep the area safe while the portal slowly collapses itself. "

I look down at Jean and then over at Author. "In the mean time I'm starving, mind if I get a bite to eat real quick? And I'd like to ask you some questions, nothing to worry about, just curious if you know anything is all."

Jean nodded and led me back to the house. She fetched some chicken eggs and set a pan over the fireplace/stove. Within just a few minutes a large plate of scrambled eggs was sat in front of me.

"Feel free to ask me anything Harry, anything I can do to help you I will."

I smile at her as I take a bite of eggs and savior the taste. I should really invest in a chicken. "Like I said its nothing serious, I was just curious if you'd had any news lately. Specifically about a fella up North that claims to be able to commit miracles."

Jean sat in silence for only a moment before answering me. "We don't hear much out here. Don't get many travelers. Anybody that does come through usually only stops for a few hours before moving on. But now that you mention it, about six or seven months a young woman came in to our little town square area and was telling a few of us about this man that had been able to make a blind girl, no older than six, see with perfect clarity. The little girl had been born that way and the woman said she had cried when she opened her eyes."

I digested this information for a moment while I ate. I have met many wizards over the centuries that could heal damaged eyes, but they have always been powerful. As far as I know a lot of knowledge had been destroyed when the bombs changed the world all those years ago. I don't believe that particular piece of information survived. So it was someone that had found a cash of lost knowledge, or they'd somehow managed to rediscover that tricky piece of magic. Either way it was very worrisome.

"I see, was their anything else the woman mentioned?" I asked her as I ate the last of my eggs.

Jean thought about it for a moment and her boy entered. He gave me a quick glance halfway between fright and awe and quickly made his way out of the kitchen and into the house. "Not really, she did mention that he was handsome, with dark hair and eyes, but that's all I know Harry."

I sit in silence as I finish the rest of my breakfast. The eggs are good, if not a little strange, but most things are a little weird now. "Thanks for the gossip. I'm gonna go sit for a spell, see if I can't figure anything more about our portal." I make my way outside, grabbing my bag by the door as I do so, and head out for the little clearing where the vortex formed. A small group of people were loitering about, eying the thing warily. Not that I blamed them.

I sit down cross-legged, about three meters from the opening in time and space and start digging through my bag. I pulled out a length of white wood and an old jar, probably used for canning goods originally. Inside the jar are a few ropey lengths of meat, cleaned and trimmed dragon heart string. The wood was yew. Its the only sample of non-mutated wood I could find so far, and that's saying something considering I've been looking for decent wand material for fifteen years now.

My magic is as strong as ever, and I have no need for a wand, but you never know when I might find someone magical that might need the handy little tool. Most of the few wizards I've run across are using old family wands, that have been passed down through the generations. There are no wand makers left in the world. Those that don't have access to wands, but know of their magic, usually fashion crude foci out of whatever they can find that will channel magic. Its simple, and doesn't allow for more finessed magic, but it allows for more general things.

Using my magic I hoist the wood and the jar in the air. With a few simple hand gestures the heart strings have been removed from the jar and hover with the block of wood. I use my magic to split the wood cleanly down the middle and hollow out a spot for a length of dragon heart string. The small crowd is more focused on me than the portal now but I ignore them, attempting to concentrate of the task I've set myself.

About fourteen hundred years ago or so I was a wand maker that grew up on the outskirts of London. I was good at what I did, but I no longer have access to any of the proper tools necessary to craft a wand using the traditional method, so I'm trying something a little more naturalistic. I had a theory back in the day that if you used magic to craft a wand, it would cause the wand to be more in touch with magic itself, a 'natural wand' of you will. Speculation pointed out that perhaps the death stick, an incredibly powerful wand that was lost to time centuries ago, may have been created in this fashion.

I Snapped my fingers and one of the heart strings broke cleanly in two before it coiled itself tightly between the two halves of the yew wood. With a snap of my fingers the two halves jumped back together and fused without a seam. Within seconds I could feel the wood thrumming with magic and smiled, at least that part had worked. Very carefully, I began to shave off layers of the wood, saving the extra for later in hopes of making another wand. After some time spent doing this, The yew wood had taken the shape of a proper wand, thicker and blunt on one end to form a handle, and thinner, tapering to a point, on the other end.

"Just one more thing..." I have a bad habit of talking to myself while I work, I tend to block out the world around, at least to a certain extent. I pull a thin bladed dagger out of my bag and use my magic to allow it to float in the air. With quick precise cuts I carve a spiraling design into the handle and hid a few dozen runes in the design, stabilizers, cooling charms and strengtheners to ensure that it won't be easy to snap. I'll never understand why Olivander never used strengthening charms on his wands, the damn things tended to fall apart after a couple decades worth of use.

After about an hour's worth of work it was completed, or as completed as it could get given the circumstances. The wand was exactly fourteen inches long, with a mutie dragon heart string as a core. I pluck it out of the air and give it a few experimental swishes and flicks. Red and gold sparks shoot out of the end of the wand and I know I have succeeded. I point the wand at a nearby rock and mutter, "wingardium leviosa." The rock neatly jumps into the air and hovers their obediently. I smile, satisfied and happy that it worked, and store the wand back into my bag for later. The onlookers stand mesmerized at what I've done.

Jean's son, Author, walks up to me, looking a little scared and a lot curious. "Mister, if you don't mind me asking, what did you just make?" I turn to face him, slightly surprised that he built up the courage to speak directly to me, before answering.

"Centuries ago, before the world burned to a husk, wizards and witches, those born with magic, used to have something called a focus to channel this very powerful force of nature. They were called wands. One part comes for a tree that has some kind of magic deep within it. The yew for instance, is best for channeling defensive and offensive magic. The second aspect of a wand is the core. The core was usually taken from a magical animal, phoenixes, dragons, and unicorns were very popular for the longest time."

"When the world changed, a lot of information was lost, including wand craft. I happen to know how to make them, but materials are so scarce these days this is the first one I've managed to craft in decades. In essence, this would help a magic user to point or direct their magic, think of it as a tool to help focus a person's natural magic into what they want."

Author looked perplexed but he nodded anyway before heading back towards his mother's house. The others started to move on and go back to their business, none of them seemed to quite grasp what I was talking about. Not that I could blame them, I have a tendency to over explain things.

I spent the rest of the day testing out the wand and keeping a close eye on the portal, every so often it would bulge and emit a groaning sound, like it was trying to give birth, but so far nothing else had come out of it. As the sun started setting and the sky took on a dusty orange color, the portal began to rapidly expand and contract, and the electricity dancing around it grew more violent. I stood up and dusted off my pants, expecting something to be coming through any second now.

The portal grew and then shrunk, expanding several times its own size before settling back down to about normal. With one last gurgling groan the portal stretched outwards, growing to be nearly five meters tall, and twice that far across. Something huge slithered out of the portal. It had two arms and legs, but they were extended, long and warped looking. Its skin was an ashen gray color, and seemed to be molted, flaked, and peeling. It had no eyes, nor any place where any eyes would have been, just a dimpled and pockmarked slab of skin above two ragged holes that I assumed were its nose. The things mouth was proportionately much larger than it should have been, with an open swinging jaw and needle like teeth that were rotting and decaying.

It released a shriek and I realized I could feel magic, raw and primal, rolling of the monster. The few people that were outside screamed at the sight of the hideous thing and most of them took off running. It seemed that the portal had drug some sort of prehistoric monster out of the primordial past. For all I know this thing was the first thing born that could wield magic. If I had to guess it was some sort of distant ancestor of a wendigo, perhaps a few thousand generations removed from its present counterpart.

It stood up to its full height and stretched. I'd say it was about four meters tall, and at least a meter across at the shoulders. Its body looked frail and powerful at the same time, bones protruded from under the skin, but hard muscles ran along its from as well, the creature was built to look like this. A deep moan escaped it ragged mouth and it inhaled deeply from its nose, a nasty, whistling flapping sound.

It turned to face me, even though it couldn't see me and snarled. Suddenly the air dropped twenty degrees and the sky darkened. A slight glow grew from the creature. I felt a slight itching sensation behind my eyes and then I heard a voice.

"_Come to me, become one with me and it will end. Pain will be but a distant memory, bliss awaits you." _The monster had one hand stretched out before it, like it was motioning me to come to it. The voice had spoken in my mind, I know that this beast couldn't possibly know English, so it must use part of its prey's mind against it. This was how it channeled its magic. The thing strongly reminded me of a dementor, and I had a hunch I knew what would work.

Within moments a mighty stag had leapt from my hands and charged the beast. The monster shrieked again and went to strike prongs but its hand passed right through the stag. It screamed in pain as its hand began to crumble away to ash where it passed through my patronis. Prongs leapt at it once more, passing directly through its chest and landing lightly on the other side. The thing snarled and twisted about, it groaned and grunted, without any dignity before crumbling to dust and drifting away in the wind.

Prongs trotted over next to me and I scratched him behind the ear for a moment before he faded away to where ever patroni go when their masters don't need them. "You can come out now, the monster is gone." Slowly people started to reenter the clearing. Author, being one of the more adventurous members of this tiny society, walked right over to me.

"What happened to it? The glowin' deer came out of no where and the monster just vanished!"

"That deer happened to be my patronis, think of it as an animal guardian that is conjured by happy thoughts. Those beasts that rely on fear to claim their prey have no hope of fighting it. The darker they are the worse a patronis will effect them. This sucker must have been quite the terror from whenever it had come from. I'd bet an apex predator."

It was dark now, with the sun gone down over the distant hills. I stretched a kink out of my neck. "I don't know when this thing is gonna cut back on, so I'll be camping out here tonight. I'm gonna try to get some rest, I recommend everybody else does the same." Jean was kind enough to bring me something warm for dinner that tasted vaguely like salmon. I didn't take long to eat. Not sleeping seems to have put more of a strain on me than I thought.

I lay out underneath the stars, gazing up at them and marveled at how no matter how long it takes, everything changes, even the stars in the sky. My eyes drifted closed, and I just pray that I can get a decent night's sleep...

THEND

I'd like to start off by apologizing for how long this chapter took. I recently went from being a full time dad to working for time, so my time management has been kinda screwy lately. But, I think I've gotten my schedule reoriented now so I should have a little time to write here and there.

I hope you all enjoyed, hopefully the next chapter won't take nearly as long.


	4. Attack of the Giant Chickens

How ya'll doin' out there today? I've managed to find a little extra time to crank out a chapter so here it is. All I'd like to say is without feed back I don't know if people are actually enjoying this story very much, since I didn't get any reviews for the previous chapter, I don't know how people took it, I'm not going to be the guy that demands reviews before an update, but without a few, I don't if anyone actually likes it. And if no one likes it... well, not much point in finishing the thing.

Then again, I like the story, I've been wanting to read something like this for a while, So I might finish it just for my own sake.

Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Harry Potter (I'm not even British) but if I ever get the chance to buy the damn thing I'm sure I will.

Chapter 4: Attack of the Giant Chickens

Darkness stretched out before me in all directions. Fragments of my past float by, and the whispers of the long dead dance in my ear. Lightning cracked on a distant horizon and dank, old magic permeates this place, smelled like burnt ozone. My lives have always been a confused tangle, a huge mess that I've never been able to solve. In my dreams it burns me, clawing into my center and sets me on fire. More lightning tore through the sky and I heard a faint humming sound.

I sit in the eye of the storm that is my past, and let it wash over me as I have a thousand times before. It usually stretched on for what felt like years, but tonight would be different, a scream snapped me back to the waking world.

I am at full alert in less than a second. Apparently a few of the villagers decided to camp out with me to either keep an eye on the portal, or to watch the show when it spat something new out. It pulsed and bulged, almost seemed to be in pain, before it expanded again to several times its size. For a brief moment I caught a glimpse of a lush green forest before a small stampede of large lizards ran out of the portal and scattered. They seemed harmless for the most part, scared witless if anything. I looked closer at one as it ran by.

"it that what I think it is? It looks like a-" I stopped mid-sentence as I saw what they were running from. I look at the beasts before me, eyes sharp and slanted. A clicking sound issues from their throats as they look me over, a deadly intelligence glinting in their eyes. A long powerful tail swings from behind them, and they are covered in small dense scales. The creatures, each standing at least two meters tall, tense before they pounce.

"I fucking hate dinosaurs." I grit my teeth and roll to the side. The beast barely missed me with its massive clawed feet. It turned on a dime and leapt again. I summon my magic and use it like a wall to push the raptor away from me and notice that the spell didn't send it flying like it should have.

Long ago before the world burned. Several wizarding scientists (such a thing did exist, believe it or not.) Hypothesized that dinosaurs were the ancestors of dragons. It made sense to me at the time. One thing that was brought up was that dinosaurs, some of them anyway, were probably extremely magic resistant. Its believed that dragons retained this trait throughout the eons, but to a lesser degree, since magic isn't as wild and untamed as it once was. These things seemed to be proving that theory.

I flicked a red stunner at one of them to test my idea and it barely looked annoyed. The six raptors, I'm just glad there aren't more of them, eyed be warily, before they charged me as a group.

I pulled a dagger from around my belt and gave it a flick. I used my magic to guide it through the air and it lodged itself in the closest raptor's neck. The beast gurgled and kept at me for a few more steps before it fell. I took off at a dead sprint away from them, magic strengthened my legs and pushed me past normal limits. With a twitch of my finger my dagger flew back into my hand.

I tore into the woods like the devil was on my heels and chanced a glance over my shoulder. If I push myself I can top out at around ninety six kilometers an hour, It puts serious strain on my tendons, but it is possible. The raptors came up right behind me, their natural speed and stronger muscles helped them to over come me. The one closest pounced on my back and knocked me to the forest floor.

Pain ripped it's way into my back as the beast sunk its razor sharp talons into me. I snarled and spun, and pulled myself free from it's grasp. I yelled and pushed a pure wave of magic upwards. The raptor was lifted into the air and thrown onto its back. It thrashed and squirmed, making an odd meowing sound as it did so. I reached behind myself and pulled one of the talons out of my back that had broken off. Hatred coursed through me as I plunged the claw into its eye socket. It screeched and thrashed for a moment before it died.

I look up and my blood runs cold. The other four raptors have surrounded me on all sides. As one they pounced. Adrenaline flooded my system and the world slowed down around me. I took a deep breath, an old occumulency technique designed to calm the mind, and jumped. My magic once again augmented my movement and propelled me fifteen meters into the air. The raptors nearly ran into each other and stood looking confused. I pulled out my dagger again as I reached the top of my jump and readied myself.

The world sped back up as I began to fall and within the blink of an eye I had fallen onto one of the raptors and plunged my knife into the back of it's neck. It snarled and fell to the ground, spine severed. In a flash I was back on my feet and sprinting through the woods again. The remaining three ran after me. I didn't know if they were angry that I had killed the others, but they seemed very intent on eating me.

I hadn't had such an adrenaline inducing encounter in many years, and I was a little surprised to find I was enjoying myself. I broke through the line of trees and into a small clearing. The grass was short and prickly with a blue tinge, and something large and hairless, possibly a descendent of some type of bear, darted into the woods across the clearing when I entered. I turned to face my pursuers.

I had only moments before they were on me again so with a pull from my magic I summoned three branches from a nearby tree. In less than a second they were stripped of their bark and sharpened into points. The lead raptor came charging out of the woods followed by the other two close behind. They stopped short at seeing me standing their with three giant floating toothpicks hovering around me.

They hissed and clicked at each other, seemed to communicate some point before the two bigger raptors snarled at the smallest one and forced it forward. The animal seemed very put out by this and I idly wondered exactly how smart these things really were. It took a few tentative steps forward, looking scared almost, before its expression and posture changed dramatically and it leapt at me with a roar. With a slight twitch of a finger one of my stakes shot forward faster than a bullet and lodged itself into the beast's chest, tearing through it with a gurgling wet crunch.

The remaining two eyed me warily before another one stepped forward. This one approached much slower and got closer to me. It made to jump and I sent out another stake. At the last moment it changed course and jumped to the side, avoiding my projectile and in less than a blink of an eye pounced again. I was ready this time and fell the magic inside me course through my muscles, giving them herculean strength. I caught the beast by the throat and strained as it pushed against me, trying to bite my face. I stumbled and had to take a step backwards to keep my footing and one of its teeth managed to graze my cheek.

With a grunt I threw it onto its side and stomped on its throat until it stopped moving. The last raptor had taken the opportunity to draw much closer to me and stood only about three meters away. I couldn't imagine what fighting one of these things would be like without my magic. The piercing point of a blade or a thinly shaped stake could penetrate their hide but only if they were thrown twice as fast as the average bullet. I imagine that a standard firearm would do little more than annoy them.

I chucked one of my stakes at its head and it darted to the side, quickly avoiding it. They were smart, and learned quickly. As soon as the sharpened stick passed it by it hunkered low to the ground and sprinted at me at over eighty eighty kilometers an hour. I could smell its breath in an instant it was so close to me. I acted on instinct and pulled a massive wall of dirt out of the ground between us, causing the raptor to run head first into it. I then dumped the two tonnes of earth back on top of the creature, crushing it flat.

My eyes darted back and forth, adrenaline still flowed through my veins. I did a quick mental count and noted that I seemed to have taken care of all of them. I took a deep breath, and tried to relax. That's when the pain hit me. In the past I have always been able to push pain aside when I needed to. Now that the threat was over, I was paying for it. The worst of it was coming from my back where one of them had dug a claw deep inside. I reached behind myself and saw blood, bright red, flowing from the wound. I closed my eyes and used my magic to scan my body. I had several broken ribs, numerous lacerations and a bad puncture in my back that had also torn a hole into one of my kidneys.

I released a deep breath and set my magic to work. I guided it through my body, taking care of the worst injury by repairing the kidney and sealing the wound before I knitted the flesh back together. Self healing is normally very draining, but I have thousands of years of combined lifetimes worth of practice to help with that. After my kidney is up and running again at full strength I move on and fuse my ribs back together. I grunt and can hear a faint crunch as they snap into place and feel the pained tightness in my chest recede into a mild throb. The rest of my injuries are mostly surface wounds and shouldn't cause much of a problem so I leave them be to heal on their own.

I walk up to the two slain raptors than are still visible and scan them with my magic. A close reading shows that they are indeed very magically resistant, perhaps ten times more so than any dragon I've ever seen. I send a tendril of magic into the openings I created with the stakes and give a little push. The hides jump off the bodies with a wet tearing sound, leaving them with their muscles and tendons exposed. I clean off the left over meat with a few swipes and roll them up tightly before sliding them into the magically expanded pockets of my jacket. They'd make some nice body armor once I got them cleaned up properly.

I decided to grab the talons as well, I might possibly be able to craft some sort of dagger from them. I didn't realize it during the chase, but I was probably around five miles from the small village. I didn't particularly feel like walking back so with a barely audible snap, I apparated back to the little town.

The entire place was in an uproar. Some of the smaller kids poked at the corpse of the first raptor I had killed and I nearly laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Everyone stopped as they realized I had just materialized out of thin air. Jean took in my appearance with her light blue eyes and seemed to go instantly into mother mode.

"Good lord Harry are you alright, you look like you've been stepped on by something huge!" She grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me over. The frown on her face caused worry lines to appear, and I realized all the gray hair peppered throughout her bun was probably caused by some of her son's antics.

"Thank you Jean, but I am fine. I've had much worse than this, just a little battered is all, and I actually was stepped on by something quite large." I pointed at one of the raptors.

"What in the hell are those things anyway?" Her son, Author, had stepped up next to her. The resemblance really was remarkable when they stood this close together. He had her eyes and hair, minus the gray, and just the slightest hint of a wispy beard was on his chin.

"That thing is called a velociraptor. It lived around seventy two million years ago, and they are a right pain in the ass."

Author's eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Sir, are you... I mean, how old are you exactly?" I give him a look before I burst out laughing.

"Well, to be honest I'm ancient, but I'm not that damn old. These things lived before humans were around. I knew about them because we used to study their fossils. Those are bones so old they turn to rock by the way." I walked over to the last corpse, the pair of them followed close behind me. "You might want to avert the children's eyes, this is going to be messy."

Within a minute of two the raptor had its hide removed and the body was burned to ash. I stowed its hide in next to the other ones and turned back to face the portal. I conjured a simple stool for myself and sat down before the swirling vortex.

"See how its bulging so much now? And how erratic the lightning is? This baby is almost out of juice. I'd say the other end of it might touch down one more time and then it'll be spent." The crowd cheered at this, and prayed that I'd be able to stop whatever came out of it next.

THEND

Okay people, I know this one was a little on the shorter side, but I just felt that this was a good spot to stop for now. Alright, the next chapter is going to be the last in this particular saga, and then Harry will be moving on down the road again. Let me know what you guys thought, I've never written a fight seen with dinosaurs before LOL. Oh, and yes I know that kind of raptor isn't quite that large, but I took some artistic license for it.

Til next time,

Harkon.


	5. From a Bygone Era

_Hey all, Had some time to tinker with this story and figured I start out on the next chapter. You know, I've noticed how a lot of writers will mention that they have a big sprawling story line mapped out from beginning to end and know just what's going to happen and what character is to do what and when. I've attempted this form of writing before but have had little success at it. It seems to inhibit my creativity to a large degree, and I also happen to find it boring if I know exactly what is going to happen next. Anything, regardless if its fanfiction or an original work, my stories seem to write themselves with little prompting on my part, I tend to go with the flow so to speak. So feel free to guess future plot points, 'cause I don't know them myself ;) I do have a distant idea for the ending, and a possible look at a sequel, but that's waay on down the road. That being said, here's the next chapter._

Chapter 5: From a Bygone Era.

_A previous life..._

For once in my exceedingly long life, I didn't manage to prevent the end of the world. If someone asked me how old I was I couldn't honestly tell them. My earliest memories are of a cave deep in the hillside somewhere, on the edge of a vast forest. The language that was spoken then is lost to me now, a few words crop up in my memory from time to time, but if I had to carry on a conversation in it I'd honestly be quite lost. Not that it matters, everyone else that might have known it is dead. Well, everyone except _him_, the man that sat before me.

We are both so very old, and in some ways I think, he tires of this game fate has us play as much as I do. In the last half a century before the sky caught fire, and the world burned to ash, we had been waging an increasingly bloody war with one another. Always on opposite sides of conflict, and always at each other's throats. I looked at him on that day with resignation. Both of us had lost the will to fight, by the time we'd found out what the muggles had done, it was too late, and seemed pointless now.

While we had been so engrossed with our own personal war, they had started one of their own. The exact date eluded me, but I believe it was some time in the year 2438. I had tried to keep up with muggle advancements, there had even been talk or perhaps trying to colonize another world at this point. But one thing I did know, was that they had cracked the secret the nuclear fusion. It had run everything. Powered entire cities, every mode of transportation ran off of miniature reactors, and of course, so had their weapons.

When he and I had discovered what they were planning to do, we called a truce. For the first time in history, we decided there were more important things than the bloody conflict between us. But by the time we discovered what was to happen, we were already to late. The bombs that burned the world were already in the sky, the fourth world war, would be the last. A keening sound could be heard for miles, the sound of a force more destructive than anything mother nature could produce would be on us at any moment.

"All of the power that we can harness at our very fingertips, and yet, the muggles are to be our undoing." I looked at him as he spoke, and nearly laughed at the indignant look on his face.

"They got out of control. I never saw this coming, and I'm sure you didn't either. I have to wonder. Will the world survive this? In any capacity? What will happen to us if it doesn't? Does this cycle end?"

He eyed my in silence for a moment, and a distant rumble shook the ground beneath our feet.

"No my old foe," a way of light was nearly upon us now. "I'm afraid it will never end for you and I."

I nodded and closed my eyes as I felt the heat wash over me, and even though it was merely as whisper, I know he heard me. "No, I suppose not."

I opened my eyes slowly. I swore that I could still feel that heat sometimes. The last moment of my life in the last 'civilized' age of man. He and I had done what we could in the end, but It had been far to late. Perhaps we were just never meant to work together, even if it would destroy the world otherwise, as it had. I had no idea how long ago that last fateful blast had occurred, but it had been long enough to fade from any form of human memory. The even that changed the world was now know as the great catalyst, no one today knew what it actually was. This small fact alone made me believe that it had to be in the distant past, at least a thousand years or more.

I stretched and looked again at the portal in time. it stretched and warbled, like a great, ancient animal trying to give birth to a particularly stubborn offspring. I wondered again at exactly how a small tear in space and time had managed to grow so large. It made me worried about the state of the world. It seemed that the planet had finally stabilized from the incredible damage it had been dealt, but this might point out otherwise.

I reached out with my senses and felt Jean approach from behind me, and I smelled something remarkably similar to coffee. I turned and I suppose I startled her since she jumped when I looked at her, but I merely smiled and she seemed to relax.

"I figured you might need something to keep you awake." She sat down next to me on a stump and offered me an old chipped mug. I inhaled the aroma and deduced that it was indeed coffee. "Me gran used to make this for us when we were younger, its called caffee. Made from some dried out beans she always kept around. A few of us have managed to grow some of them around here."

I nodded in appreciation and took a long pull off of it. Black of course "The name is a little different but I've had it before, a long time ago."

She sat quietly, I supposed she was thinking about the last few days, how her small understanding of the world had shifted and changed so drastically.

"Harry, if you don't mind me asking. How many of you are there? Wizards I mean." She looked at me with a bit of curiosity, and just a hint of fear.

"These days? Not many. I'd say on this big island of ours there might we two dozen of us, if that. There used to be thousands of us living here. We never had a big of a population as normal folks, but we're all but wiped out completely now."

She nodded and drank from her own mug for a while. "Are they all like you? I've seen you do things in the last few days that I never thought were possible. It seems strange that we still live in the world that we do, even with just a handful of people like you, I figured something could be done with the world, how dangerous it is. I've heard there are places someone can't even walk through without falling over dead."

She spoke of dead zones. Places where the radiation levels were still so high, nothing could live, no plants could grow. They were receding now, but it made me think about how troubled out little blue planet still truly was.

"Wizards like me? Most wizards channel their magic through foci, wands, staves and other things. It is an art form that has been lost to time I'm afraid. Most wizards these days are very limited in their capabilities. Most can move things at will without touching them. Even conjure fire and water with a thought. But true power?" I reached down and plucked a dead flower off of the ground. It was dried and crispy, probably from all the energy put out by the portal. With a little push of my magic, life seemed to flow back into it. It unfurled and bloomed, looking healthy and alive. "I am unique in that regard."

A look of awe washed over Jean as I handed her the flower. I suppose she found it nice that I could use my magic for other reasons than just killing things. She smiled at me and carefully placed the flower in her pocket. I doubted if it would wilt again this decade.

"While it is true that wizards on average live much longer than those that cannot control magic, I am a special case. I have seen far to much, for how young I appear." She nodded quietly at the explanation and didn't ask anymore questions of me for quite some time.

We sat in a companionable silence, and drank our coffee as the sun slowly made its way up over the distant horizon, shining through the trees with a light golden color. "how old are you really Harry?"

I gave her a look and snorted laughter as I stood up and stretched some of the kinks out of my back. "I've forgotten how old I am a long time ago Jean. If you want a number I can't really help you there." I finished my coffee and handed her mug back to her with a small of gratitude. "There's an old saying, you're as young as you feel. And I've got the oldest codger in this little village beat by a long shot."

She laughed at that and stood with next before she headed back to her little house. I smiled at her retreating back, if only she was a little older...

I role my eyes and shake my head before I turned back to the problem at hand. The portal. It was so erratic now that I wasn't sure if something else was going to come through it or not. It had lost much of its power, reaching so far in time as it had. Whatever came through next would be much closer to the present.

"The last thing I need is for this thing to open up and let through a blast of radiation from one of the old bombs." I eyed it one last time before I grabbed for my bag. I might as well do something worth while as I wait.

I pulled out a roll of the raptor hide and studied it critically. I prodded it with my magic, and attempted to discern if it had lost any of its potency. It seemed that the hide kept almost all of its resistance after the body had died, unlike a basilisk or a dragon. I layed the hide out on the ground and released my magic as a stunner towards the hide.

It slid right off the surface without seeming to damage it at all. I increased the power and released a form of the reducto curse. Again the spell seemed to slide right off of the hide without damaging it. I touched it and it was cool.

"Hmm, interesting." I raised my hands and sent forth a torrent of lightning. It sparked and crackled across the hide, and when I touched it, it was a little warm, but no signs of damage. After wards I tried cutting hexes, fire and ice spells. When those failed to yield I resorted to the darker nature of magic. A firewip cause superficial scratches, but a spray of acid pock marked the hide and nearly penetrated it in places. It seemed the hide had reached it limit, but I was satisfied that it was probably the most spell resistant material I had ever come across.

"Now how in the bloody hell am I supposed to mold the stuff to my needs?" I could levitate it easily enough, but I don't think the standard curing and cleaning charms would work very well on it. I pondered the though for some time and Jean approached me with her son Author. He carried a plate of food for me.

I took it from him without looking away from the hide. "Thanks." I scratched my chin in though and pulled out a number of things from my nearly bottomless bag. Magic was much faster and cleaner when it came to preparing hide, but I could set a few old fashioned tools to the job and see if they helped any. I conjured a board and fixed the hide to it before commanding a small tool, used for scraping residual meat off of skins, to work before I gave them my full attention.

"Sorry, this stuff just looks like it might be dead useful. I got a little preoccupied with it." Jean laughed at me and her son seemed to relax at the idea that I at least appeared a little more human to him.

"That's alright Harry, we just figured we'd bring ya a bite to eat. You can go back to what you were doin' now." I waved her off.

"Just a little side project, no worries. This should take care of itself for now." I gestured towards my little set up. Upon closer inspection my scraping tool had been whittled down to about half its size already. I conjured another one, cast an impervious charm on it and replaced the worn one. It seemed to be working much better now.

I glanced up at the portal and noticed that it was fluctuated erratically, it had lost any sort of pattern. "I don't believe it will be long now. I think this will be the last visitor we'll have. Perhaps this one won't try to kill me." I stopped for a moment to think about the absurdity of the last few days. Prehistoric magical demons, giant scorpions and fucking dinosaurs. I seemed to have all the fun.

"Do ya got any idea how long it might be before it closes." It was the first time Author had spoken that morning.

I glanced at him and shrugged. "Less than a day. This should all be over for you lot before sundown."

He seemed to visibly relax at that before he grew nervous again. "I was wondering, any chance you could show us more of your magic? We've seen little things, and how you can fight with it, but well, it just looks so neat!"

I was instantly reminded that even though he had grown up in a hellish world, he was still young, and magic is wonderful, regardless of how old you are. I gave him an easy going smile. "What would you like to see?"

He paused like he had a question on the tip of his tongue and hesitated. "Well, I don't really know what you can do. What all can you do?"

I laughed and allowed magic to dance across my fingertips. "The interesting thing about magic is that its uses are practically limitless. A lot of it is intent based, and powered by the imagination." With the snap of my fingers a pig materialized out of thin air. "That is what was once called conjuration. Essentially, creating nothing from something. This pig is just that, a pig. It sounds, looks, and acts like a pig. If it didn't eat it would starve and die. Upon the death of the conjuration, it would vanish back into being pure magic. One of the few rules of magic there is, is that you can't consume conjure of transfigured objects. You couldn't cook and eat this pig, because it is made up of magic." I waved my hand and the pig vanished.

I next picked up a stick and with a wave transfigured it into rabbit. "this is called transfiguration. Turning one thing into another. It would behave just like a rabbit until it either died, or I canceled the magic. Then it would revert back into a stick. Wizards have been trying to solve this problem for thousands of years and had no luck. Being able to feed the world with nothing more than transfigured rocks would be amazing, but you'd end up with a stomach full of gravel."

With a mischievous grin I summoned a sphere of green fire. It rolled back and forth in my hands like a normal ball, and didn't burn me. "I could use this flame to cook a meal or burn down a forest, but you could hold it in your hand and it would barely feel warm." I chucked it at him and out of instinct he caught it. He fumbled with it for a few minutes before he realized it didn't burn him. "That's a special type of fire designed to not harm humans. Just make sure not to drop it on a dog or anything, or you'd be having roasted canine for dinner." I let Author play with the fire for a few more moments before canceling the spell.

It didn't seem to take long before I began to take requests. Apparently, Author opened a flood gate of questions. Most of the village, even that grumpy older fellow that was arguing with everyone when I arrived wanted to see a bit of magic.

We spent most of the afternoon going over different things as I tried my best to explain them to a group of people that had no knowledge base of the subject.

"Yes I could conjure fresh drinking water, but like anything else, you couldn't consume it. As soon as the spell wore off it would vanish, even if you had drank it already. Potentially, you could go from being completely hydrated to as dry as a husk in less than a second. I don't imagine the process would be all that enjoyable."

I sighed and smiled out at everyone. They were all muggles, nothing wrong with it but it would be nice to occasionally pass on my knowledge to someone that could actually make use of it.

"Harry, how long have wizards been around? When did it all get started?" I had a brief flashback, living in a cave and hunting for food.

"As far as I know, magic users have existed just as long as the rest of humanity. We are not a different species, we are all human and equal in that right. To say I am better because I can wield magic is like saying someone is better for having blue eyes than brown eyes. We are all our own people. I just have a bit wider of a tool belt to draw on. Now, the exact thing that makes me a wizard is pretty rare. Think of it as if someone were born with green eyes as opposed to blue or brown. It still happens, all the time in fact, but much less so than the other two."

People nodded along with what I had said. I doubt they truly understood exactly what I was talking about, but they were trying. None of these people were stupid by any means. Just uneducated. In such a harsh environment certain skills were put before others. Calculus wouldn't be doing anyone any favors in this world.

The sun began to set when people started to return to their homes. The portal was on its last legs. Our visitor would be here any moment now or wouldn't come at all.

It screeched and howled, shook as if it were in pain. Author and Jean had stayed with my to watch, confident that I would be able to handle anything dangerous that might come out. It pulsed and flashed faster and faster.

I held my breath and brought my magic to my fingertips and the portal gave one final lurch before it spat something out onto the ground and promptly collapsed back into nothingness. I waited with baited breath as I observed the new arrival.

It was relatively small, at least in comparison to the raptors that had appeared last time, and it smoked slightly. I doubt the ride was very comfortable. I heard a groan and realized it was a person wrapped up in a dark cloak.

As they sat up, the hood fell backwards and revealed long curly brown hair, hair that if I remembered correctly, had been quite bushy when she was little.

My heart stopped in my chest, it seemed a ghost from my past had returned after such a long time...

"Hermione?"

There you go, chapter 5 of Future of Ruin. Sorry it took so long to update. My daughter thought my laptop was thirsty and wanted to give it the a drink. Luckily for me the damn thing is built like a tank, and everything started working normally again after it dried out.

Til next time.

-Harkon

P.S. Does anybody want longer chapters? I don't mind writing longer ones, I thought about doubling their length, just let me hear some opinions and I'll think about what to do.


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